Comparison of the physical properties of the L4 and L5 trojan asteroids from ATLAS data

A. McNeill, N. Erasmus, D. E. Trilling, J. P. Emery, J. L. Tonry, L. Denneau, H. Flewelling, A. Heinze, B. Stalder, H. J. Weiland

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

7 Scopus citations

Abstract

Jupiter has nearly 8000known co-orbital asteroids orbiting in the L4 and L5 Lagrange points called Jupiter Trojan asteroids. Aside from the greater number density of the L4 cloud, the two clouds are in many ways considered to be identical. Using sparse photometric data taken by the Asteroid Terrestrial-impact Last Alert System for 863 L4 Trojans and 380 L5 Trojans, we derive the shape distribution for each of the clouds and find that, on average, the L4 asteroids are more elongated than the L5 asteroids. This shape difference is most likely due to the greater collision rate in the L4 cloud that results from its larger population. We additionally present the phase functions and c-o colors of 266objects.

Original languageEnglish (US)
Article number6
JournalPlanetary Science Journal
Volume2
Issue number1
DOIs
StatePublished - Feb 2021

ASJC Scopus subject areas

  • Astronomy and Astrophysics
  • Geophysics
  • Earth and Planetary Sciences (miscellaneous)
  • Space and Planetary Science

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